4:42 p.m.
After months of being assaulted with nothing but black, grey, deep chocolate brown and variations thereof, it’s nice to finally start seeing a bit of color out there in the great wide world of what to wear:
1.) This Mulberry Mabel is the shiniest, grapiest (is that even a word — never mind, I declare it so!) purple leather bag I’ve ever laid eyes on. I ordered it for my best Seattle friend so that she can have the solace of bold color on her arm while she runs errands throughout the drizzly, dreary, overcast Pacific Northwest winter.
Now this is what I call juicy couture!
I found it at Net-A-Porter. I saw another version at Intermix for a couple of hundred dollars less, but it wasn’t shiny patent, which robbed the deep, rich purpleness of most of its allure.
2.) Chloe usually bores me to snores with its endless iterations on black, brown, tan and beige, so imagine my shock and awe when I spotted their new Patent Leather orange quilted ‘Eloise’ pochette bag. Good golly — what a jolt of caffeinated color this little baby churns out:
Tangerine Trees and Marmalade Skies, indeed.
Browns Fashion out of London carries this little bucket of voltage.
3.) SumFortune is a relative new kid on the fashion block with their first collection debuting in only 2006, but damn if they’re not doing their best to get noticed with these splashes of sunny, funky, trippy color that highlight their Fall/Winter 2007/2008 collection:
Like a big bowl of candy coated goodness.
Shirley Sum (one half of SumFortune) used to work as a designer with Jimmy Choo, and while the influence is obvious, what’s also obvious is that she’s got her own groovelicious sense of personal style shakin’ it all over the place. Sock those winter doldrums right out of me!
You can find SumFortune at Matches Fashion, another Brit-based retailer.
5:52 p.m.
My mind is aswim with fashion images and information as I’m right in the middle of page-turning a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the corporate battlefield of high end fashion — Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster. All I can say is, the shoes and bags aren’t the only things wearing the snake skin. These people mean business . . . like, billions of dollars worth of business, and aint nobody standin’ in their way!
Dana Thomas is an excellent writer, and if you’re at all interested in burrowing into the business side of looking good, she’s a great guide. I have The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty by Julia Flynn Siler waiting in the wings.
